Mercedes-Benz has collaborated with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am through the rapper’s creative AI venture FYI – to add an AI-powered radio to some of the car maker’s entertainment systems.
While the app is available to all smartphone users, US owners of the 2024 or newer E-Class, CLE, as well as the 2025 C-Class and the GLC will have the FYI RAiDiO app integrated into their in-car entertainment systems.
Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, the app is a conversational AI radio and features “personas”, or personalised voice characters, along with language models, web content, and music licenses to personalise listeners’ experiences.
It features 16 interactive stations covering subjects such as pop culture, tech and music, sports and has a station for media outlets such as Time Magazine to “talk” about their latest news and articles.
At the launch event in London last Friday, the rapper presented the AI radio app, where he conversed with each radio station in between songs.
He enthused that the app included the ‘personas’ of underrepresented communities and added that those working on the app “finetuned” the LLMs and ensure guardrails so that the output was accurate.
FYI, which stands for Focus Your Ideas, was launched by the musician and entrepreneur in 2023, and is a productivity tool designed to meet the needs of creatives. It claims to organise projects, manage calendars, summarise group chats, make calls, send messages, acting as an all-in-one digital assistant.
Chip manufacturer Qualcomm announced its intention to collaborate on optimising FYI.AI for mobile devices, powered by Snapdragon and to explore other services.
“We are at the cusp of a generational change. AI is the new UI and this shift will transform how we interact with our phones, PCs, cars and more,” said Cristiano Amon, president and chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. “
“The use of agentic AI on devices will spur new experiences that are personalised, private and natural,”
“The FYI.AI app is an exciting example of how this technology can transform the way users ideate, generate, and collaborate. We look forward to working with will.i.am and FYI to showcase the power of on-device AI.”
